Kingdom
A kingdom is a sovereign state, it is comprised of a king and various land owners who have all sworn fealty to the king. Factions are a tool for the land owners to interact with one another or even the king while staying loyal to the kingdom. Authority I want there to be a constant struggle between the dukes and the kings for the authority of the king over the dukes. Each duke will have an individual oath with the king and this will set the obligations of the duke to the king. As with any oath these obligations can be shirked at the cost of becoming an oath breaker. Obligations of the Duke * War ** Whether a duke must supply troops to a foreign war ** Whether the king can stop a duke from fighting their own war * Pay Tribute/Taxes ** The tax rates * Buildings ** Whether a king can create buildings in a dukes land ** Whether a king can order the destruction of buildings in a dukes land ** Whether a king owns the buildings in a dukes land * Religion ** The dukes religion ** The populaces religion * Royal Marriage ** Whether the king can enforce a marriage onto a duke Obligations of the King * Protection from Foreign powers ** Prevent Invasions ** Protect interests of their subjects *** Trade *** Supply Routes ' * Centralisation ** All collection of taxes and resources is done through the capital of the duchy *** This means every piece of gold goes through the capital before being counted *** This makes collecting from the edges of the provinces more expensive than the actual coins *** There is also a reduced imperial presence, allowing for bandits to make tax collections even more difficult *** If a population is abandoned for long enough they can get ideas of independence ** If a capital is taken all administration for the duchy is gone (nothing is collected) *** This makes larger domains more resilient to skirmishers *** This means that any serious siege can devastate a larger area *** Potential domino effects on all territories that are codependent **** Roads going through conquered territory would break down **** Trade Routes break down *** Stab the heart of a kingdom **** Codependent states would specialise making self reliance improbable **** If all roads were centralised then codependents might be isolated from adjacent friendly territory * Decentralisation ** More efficient ** Smaller duchies mean easier collections ** Smaller duchies means a greater dependency on other duchies *** Without centralisation of power these can force them to be allied with neighbouring duchies and not the actual state ** Armies *** Greater Loyalty to the lord means that higher forces of millitia *** each duke will have their own armies to protect their interests I want there to be a significant penalty to consolidating territory (redrawing duchies to be bigger and bigger to remove the amount of dukes in a realm) Legitimacy' * Low Legitimacy ** Gives subjects or factions that are large enough the Pretender King Cassus Belli ** Each victory over a pretender adds legitimacy Puppet King * Fall of Rome In rome citizens are the soldiers, citizens with homes that they wish to return to, not just garrison far flung lands. Citizens are also the land holders, not having citizens at home means that fields go unyielded. Rich people buying out the farms, removing potential citizens (because there is less land for the farmers to own) Slaves are busy working the land instead of the citizens Give more people land to create more citizens Limits the amount of land that can be owned, rich people attempt to gain the land back Barbarian slaves were working the land Rome fell through politics and corruption